Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab

I was the proud owner of the Samsung Galaxy Tab for all of one week! It was a great week, and I regret every minute I spent getting a refund on my hard earned J$70k (not really.)

The 7″ tab feels great. It is light and compact but the screen is big enough to enjoy watching movies and browsing the web. One of the reasons I bought it was because of the small form factor compared to it’s closest rivals. Unfortunately the reference design for newer Tablets seems to be stuck at the 10.1″ mark. That kinda makes me sad- because all I want from a tablet is an intermediary between my 24″ monitor desktop, my 15″ laptop, my (hopefully) 40″ TV and my 2-3′ Mobile phone screens.

With all the hype surrounding Dual Core I have to admit that I had no lag or performance issues with the Galaxy Tab. The applications were all fluid and the device was extremely responsive. I was about to do everything I intended- and I had access to all my social networks in a snap.

Couple points to note

- Facebook on the Tab’s browser looks like Facebook mobile. I did not get the rich interface I expected from the default browser (-)

- The device has a front facing camera and a rear camera. Yahoo Messenger did not work from the front facing camera. This ended up being a deal breaker. It means I can’t see who I am talking to the same time they see me. (-)

- I thought the device should have had HDMI out of the box. Instead I spent U$35 on a dock and a bit more on a case. These things should be standard in my humble opinion. (-)

- Fingerprint magnet. I found myself obsessively wiping it at nights when I was preparing to snuggle up for a 7″ movie (-)

- Android rules the mobile OS world. It was Froyo and I am eager to see what Honeycomb can do. (+)

- The Android Market is often accused of not having enough- but I found everything I wanted. The #1 Torrent App for Android is tTorrent. It cost me less than U$3 to get the full version which has no download cap. (+)

- All my calendars were synced up nicely and displayed accurately in the calendar application. Facebook, Work, Google- all in tandem. (Who needs Tungle?) (+)

- I had fully synced access to my Corporate email. This seemed to be built into the default interface. Here I was thinking I couldn’t break free from my Blackberry- when in fact, Android is ready to accept me. If only I could get all my friends to migrate to WhatsApp. (+)

- The service was beautiful! I had it on Wifi and then on LIME 3G and I couldn’t tell the difference (+)

- GPS is a fun toy. My mother loved it and was so disappointed when I returned it- because she wanted to play with the GPS some more on the pending long trips. (+)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab may be the last good 7″ Droid left. It is quick, responsive and begs the question- why all the hype about Dual Core? However, given what is on the market now with default features (eg. HDMI out) and even some players allowing the Tab to function like a desktop replacement- it is hard to hold on to this device. If you absolutely need a Tablet now, and you don’t like Apple then this could do for you. However, wait until the welcome wagon from Google arrives with the new Honeycomb devices that will have everything you need to get going. You probably want to wait on the price drop- because seriously, this is a tablet and not a laptop or desktop!

Score: 7.5/10

 

Mobile TV Phone Isn’t Perfect…But it Works

This is my review of the entry-level TV Phone, the ZTE N290.

Physical Features

If you want a full technical specification your best bet is here at GSM Arena. The N290 is small enough to fit in your pocket or purse. If you want a reference device for width and length or length you can compare it with the blackberry Bold 9700. The thickness and length are the same but the Bold 2 is a little wider. It feels like a solid device, using the candy-bar form factor. You can probably burst a head or two before totally destroying this device after a good toss.

The phone is entirely touch screen and comes with a stylus. It is easier to use the stylus than your fingers and calibrating it is a must when you first get the device. I don’t think it can do any fancy multi-touch- this never tried to be an iPhone.

Your regular sized candy-bar phone.

Functionality

This is a television that picks up over the air signals. The built in stylus doubles as the antenna. The first time I tried it I thought it was a bit corny. I have seen other people do some serious improvisation by extending the stylus far beyond the manufacturers intentions. What is noteworthy is that signal strength can be a factor. After you’ve gotten over the fact that this is a phone with an actual antenna you get sucked into watching television, and not looking at a mobile phone screen.

The service is limited to Kingston and sections of St. Catherine. Not everywhere in Kingston can pick up the service. Furthermore, in my bedroom I could watch on my bed, but not at my desk. However, whenever I was on the road with the device it worked- and worked well. The image is pretty clear- though I get the impression that this is not the best quality available. Quality seems to be limited by the hardware and not the LIME network or system.

Television works - note the antenna

Other Notes

Most people who own this phone got it for free after trading in their older phone and buying $2500 calling credit. For a fully touch-screen phone with Mobile TV you’d think that is a steal. However, it only has a WAP browser, seems to want to turn itself off when not in use and has a generally boring set of features. It doesn’t feel like the type of phone that would have tons of interesting apps. It is like…buying a television. Don’t expect this to be a smart phone.

However, most of the trade-ins that I have seen were from some very basic phones- so this is an upgrade for most. Full colour, large screen and a couple built in games are leaps and bounds ahead of the typical flashlight phone. I am a BB user though, so my needs are a bit more intricate, even from my side-phone.

A television with some basic phone features

The Verdict

If you got this free- rejoice. It does exactly what it should do. If you want one phone to rule them all- there are other television phones that can do more than just watch television. These phones carry a hefty price tag- and I am almost sure they won’t be appearing free any time soon.

I probably wouldn’t pay more than J$6000 for it, simply because of it’s single application.  The service is great but the phone is…blah.

 

Unplugged

I read a tweet that vastly changed my perspective on being connected to the social media world. I tried it for a bit, but most addicts who quit cold-turkey will tell you how hard it was to stay sober. What does it mean to be unplugged and is there a happy medium to be found?

http://twitter.com/lexlimitless/status/24688208911

Abacus

Technology has given us more availability than ever before. It may be hard to believe but years ago people used to put pen to paper and write letters. They would mail these letters and trust the postal system to deliver them safely and accurately. I used to have a penpal at Westwood High School and that is how we did it. I wouldn’t hear from her for months on end as we sent letters back and forth. When my best friend moved to South Africa (to live) that is how we kept in touch. Until one of us stopped writing, but that is tangential.

If I want to talk to someone today I have a few options:

1. Sure, if it wasn’t particularly urgent I could email.
2. I could also send them an IM (googletalk, msn or yahoo) or FB message.
3. If I want to be an attention junkie I could post to their wall or on their Twitter.
4. Maybe I could mark up their blog with a comment.

In essence, they are availabile to me, and I am led to believe that I can access them whenever I want to. Being the decent citizen that I am I rarely take advantage of that power but it does have implications for how I live. Imagine if all these methods of immediate contact were in pocket form and was literally at my fingertips. Enter Blackberry 9700 and just about every smartphone on the planet.

Addicted to Our Availability

I think it is time for us to disconnect from the grid. The power in our palm (RIP Palm OS) is driving us crazy.

I am going to ask you a series of questions, please answer them honestly:

1. Do you comprehensively understand short-code speech (OMG, LOL, GL, GJ, GM)
2. Do you check your phone often?
3. Do you have your social networks on your handheld? (Example: FB, BBM, Twitter, 4Square)
4. Your phone just vibrated in your purse, pocket or holster. Do you pick it up to check within 30 seconds?
5. Does it take less than five minutes for you to respond to a message directed to you?

If you answered yes to two or more of the above, you have a problem and you need help.

Silence Therapy

I saw a BBC special -Click- on some students taking the decision to unplug for a day (couldn’t find the clip, sorry. Try searching for Unplug and Click online or on BBC and you see the difficulty I had.) The task was to stay away from technology for one day, no television or computers or phones. They had to return to pen and paper. I mean, I use pen and paper but if I had the right type of tablet I’d abandon that archaic method of data capture.

To add insult to injury some of us are tied to a specific device. I wanted to get an Android. I was even courting the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini. Then my manager sent me a BB message about an idea she wants me to think through. Then I thought, if I get a droid I will lose that close interface to my manager. Resistance is futile. I even tried to quit cold Turkey. I was about to celebrate two months since I removed Twitter and Facebook from my BB but last night I reinstalled Twitter (and like it!)

Technology has allowed us to say more without having a human interaction. I have 236 Facebook friends, a few twitter followers and several persons on my blackberry messenger list. I can confidently say that less than 10% of each list contains people that I actually want to spend time with. What does that say for the tool that invalidated my Penpal relationship? Doesn’t that make you feel a little annoyed to think that you are opening yourself up to all these people who will never accept you or care about you?

Conclusion

This is one of those times when I don’t have a solution for you. I know- lame. I have too many friends who have ‘quit’ blackberry or facebook or twitter and they come right back. Heck, I have quit them all at some point. If you don’t want to appear to be a total hermit then you have to seem connected. These networks are sometimes relevant to your social mobility and status. (Who nuh have BB a bait?) There needs to be some system or device that can save us from the obsessive check-ins and tweets and ‘availability.’

They say the Windows Phone will save us. I say we all go back to flashlight phones and using our social networks on our computers. Lol, I’m kidding. People like me thrive on you being addicted to communication. Please, help me stay employed.

 

One versus Many

I am the proud owner of a Blackberry 9700. Until RIM makes the Torch 2 this is still going to be (for me) the best Blackberry that has ever been made. This phone does everything- takes pictures, sends emails, browse the web, listen to music and even installs third-party apps expanding the list beyond my ability to count. Does a phone like this (or an Android or IPhone) signal the end of the specialist devices that exist to fulfill just one or two of the functions? I am going to tackle one feature at a time and discuss whether they have replaced the device that used to do it.

 

 

Making and Receiving Calls

Can you believe some phones can’t make or receive calls properly? (Iphone 4 *cough* Apple-fail *wheeze*) A phone is designed to do this core function- this was supposed to be the specialty.

Document and Email Creation

I have owned a blackberry for a few years- from before blackberry messenger was invented. From the days when the blackberry was fat in your hand and was only used by business persons, not teenagers and social media enthusiasts. I always thought the device was good for replying to emails quickly (why else have email on the go?) or for composing short messages. I do not think it replaces my newly installed MS Outlook 2010 on my laptop. I prefer using that when I want to add some html to my signature or write a long email with careful attention to grammar and spelling.

Additionally, while “Documents To Go” can help me read documents on a plane or bus I think it is unrealistic to expect me to create a detailed business report with just my thumbs. What if I wanted to add graphs and indexes? Is the screen even 4-inches yet? A smartphone cannot replace a laptop or desktop.

Divergence 1, Convergence 0

Media Player

This one is a bone of contention for me. Sometimes the media player on my Bold 2 is perfect- other times it is downright annoying. Sometimes it pauses or skips just because I receive a message or there is the beep of bbm- other times it doesn’t. I keep thinking that if they gave it an FM radio then it would be even closer to perfect. That said, I can’t hold it against all smartphones that RIM hasn’t finished designing the media player.

Reviews suggest that the IPhone and Android have excellent media players. With the media space these devices can afford you probably won’t have an mp3 player in your pocket alongside your smartphone. Matter of fact, if you get the armband case then you are all set.

Divergence 1, Convergence 1

GPS

If you live in Jamaica, and more specifically, Kingston- you know that Googlemaps on your Blackberry is an amazing piece of software. When I went to Atlanta recently I saw it in action on the IPhone and I was pleased with the results. But then they put up the specialist GPS device with audible turn-by-turn navigation. That kicked in the IPhone GPS’s teeth. I imagine the blackberry would receive a similar “shilacking”.  Specialist GPS device for the win.

Divergence 2, Convergence 1

Ebook Reader

Amazon.com has made a specialist device called the Kindle that is perhaps the ultimate eBook reader. They also made software clients that work with Blackberry, other smartphones, laptops and tablets. They have to feel pretty sure about their product to put it on the blackberry and then sell a separate piece of hardware. I’m going to give the point to the specialist device because reading a book on a 3.5inch screen is lame.

Divergence 3, Convergence 1

Gaming

Lol. PS3 or PC rules. LMAO. I can’t even believe I put this category- am I clutchting at straws here?

Divergence 4, Convergence 1

Camera

I’ve seen smartphones with decent cameras. I have also seen true Camera-phones. Both are great. However, I do not think they compete well against today’s digital camera. Image Stabilization, optical zoom- not a lot of phones can host all these alongside the more standard phone features. It is good to be able to whip out your camera-phone and take a quick pic of that person in the club or that person who shouldn’t be with that other person- but when you want quality you will want a dedicated piece of equipment. Match-point Digital Camera.

Divergence 5, Convergence 1

Conclusion

It is a nice idea to have a phone that does everything but it doesn’t make sense to me as a functional concept. Apart from making calls or playing music you are still going to need a ‘real device’ to handle larger volumes or better quality of the activity that your smartphone can only ‘fill-in’ for. The smartphone feels like a placeholder until you get home, to your desk or car- when you transfer your energy to something more robust and resilient. “Many” wins, in my humble option. I will probably always have a smartphone, but I will have a few other devices as well.

 

Securing your Blackberry Pics and Vids

After the impromptu release of several high-profile sex videos I think it is time we discuss how to make it all stop. I mean, let us be honest, we really would prefer to record these videos for posterity’s sake but do not want to share them unwittingly.

So you put her on your video phone but you don’t want others to know. Look at these five (5) tips for keeping a secret.

1) The first step I would suggest is getting a Blackberry

Blackberry has the most secure bluetooth security I have ever seen. If you are not set-up to send to or receive from the specific Blackberry it is not going to happen. I have not heard any reports of the Blackberry being hacked, or more specifically the Bluetooth being hacked. I know other brands allow people to catch the bluetooth transmission from the air, not Blackberry.

2) Now that you have a Blackberry put a password on it

If you store your photos and videos on the device memory and not the memory card then this is an obvious fix. If you lend people your phone to make calls, you can put a password on your phone while allowing outgoing calls without passwords. You can set your phone to lock after 2 minutes to hours depending on your paranoia.

Read on, the tips get better.

3) Encrypt your Media Card, including media files

Okay. I do not encrypt all my media files, simply because while i am paranoid I hate the inconvenience. Some operations will be slower and transferring media to and from the Blackberry is going to take longer. Also, if you want to wipe the media card it is going to be a very long process. I would recommend this step if you are sure you do not want people to be able to take out your media card and put your ‘ass’ on youtube. I bought a 16GB memory card for my phone that I think I am going to encrypt, however I haven’t reached that level of commitment yet.

4) Hide your stash

Blackberry allows you to hide files. This means that these files will not show up in the media explorer. This is useful if people want to borrow your phone to see the features (and you are dumb enough to lend them. You know they only want to see your pics!.) This way they will flip through and only see files that you made visible. The set-back is that if they know what they are looking for they will find it. Once they un-hide they can do the transfer (assuming you didn’t follow the previous 3 steps.)

5) Get a nifty free and safe application called File Lock

If you are like me and do not want to encrypt your media card right away then this is the next best thing. File Lock encrypts the specific file you want to hide with a password that can only be unlocked by the application and with your password. It automatically changes the file format, hence removing it from media explorer (better than hiding). Then, when you are ready to debut your new sex-tape just unlock it and it is back in circulation.

 

Let the healing begin

I get confused by what I may have tweeted vs what I have blogged about. I know I told you about the death of my PC over a year ago- untimely and painful. I hope I told you about when my brother and I bought a PS3. I also hope I mentioned that I have a Blackberry 9700 now, having upgraded from the Bold 9000 series. Okay. All caught up!

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SC2 is HERE (after 12 years…)

Blizzard is finally releasing Starcraft 2. My copy is due to reach my hands next week, possibly by Friday. Of course, I need a machine to play this on. Ever since I subscribed to Maximum PC I have experienced a resurgence in interest in building a gaming/multimedia rig.

Zerg Rules!

Dream PC in Development

I had actually ordered these basic parts that would allow me to start gaming once the game arrives:

- Motherboard. This is an 890FX chipset motherboard. Best in class for AMD.

- Processor. Quad-Core Black Edition CPU. I was thinking about six-cores but I do not think they’ve got it right just yet.

- PSU. The PSU on my last right ruined my life, as well as two of my motherboards. This name-brand PSU should wipe away all tears.

I already have a fully functional case, graphics card, RAM and hard drive. I can swap out those parts later. Unfortunately my bank did not accept a credit card payment I made days ago, so consequently they have not allowed me to make the purchase. I canceled the order and decided to be more aggressive in saving my money so that I won’t have to rely on a single payment to decide my fate. That means August’s end for these parts.

Amazon-1, Newegg-0

You may notice that I am going to get these items from Amazon.com and not Newegg.com. Newegg.com doesn’t accept credits cards that are not based in the US. Amazon.com does. Therefore, I don’t need to jump through hoops anymore to beg Newegg.com for their business. Best of all, I am not compromising on price, and I get free 2-day shipping thanks to Amazon Prime.

$34.99 Cheaper than $516

So in the meantime, as my MBA programme comes to a close (July 29 last exam, August 12 last assignment) I still need something to kill the time. I am  going to get the RPG Dragon Age for PS3. Hopefully this will  satisfy my RPG craving until they come out with StarWars: The Old Republic.

I think this is who I will be. Dark-side.